When working in health care you have to take into consideration the families religion. Some families don’t believe in all of the necessary treatment to care for a patient. When caring for religious patients you need to ask if they have any religious beliefs and if so then you need to follow them and respect them. There are many different religions who believe in different things. This may cause problems because doctors aren’t able to perform the proper care the patient needs.
Typically ask patients if they have any cultural or religious preferences. Use this to make the care plan when appropriate. Don’t make assumptions based on the patient’s responses about religious preferences. Be sure to ask patients about their religious preferences in a private area where family members or friends aren’t present, if possible. This will keep the patient from feeling pressured by possibly opposing views of family and friends.
There are many different religions that interfere with medical help such as Buddhist, catholic, Hindu, Jehovah witness, Jewish, etc.. A big religion is the Jehovah’s witness, they believe that the bible prohibits against receiving blood, whether it be by transfusion, in medication containing or manufactured using blood products, or in food. Jehovah witness try to work with health care workers to try and seek all possible options for treatment that do not interfere with religious concerns. This doesn’t always work because if a patient is in a bad accident and needs blood or medicine and the doctors know they could save their life but the family doesn’t agree so instead of helping the patient it’s killing the patient.
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Doctors must follow their beliefs and do what the family wants, they have to explain all the possible risks and consequences for the patient if no treatment is done. They also have to state other possible treatment options and the risks involving those. Catholics have similar rules as Jehovah’s witness that they follow, they believe in a non-meat diets especially during the late- winter time of lent. Catholics also believe in baptism, If a child is born and will only live for a few hours the doctors must provide a catholic priest for the family and allow time for the baptism. They also should be provided a quiet environment for the baptism to be done in. another religion is Buddhism, they place strong emphasis on “mindfulness”, a patient may request a quiet environment for meditation.
This is a case where the doctor nurse could provide a place or room for the family to go and meditate. They also believe in end-of-life care, they need clarification of the patient’s wishes about the use of analgesics in the days or hours before death. Hindus also believe in end-of-life care, they request that there is always someone with the deceased body, even when the body is in the morgue. Doctors must allow these request and if they won’t allow a family member in the morgue they will be ok with sitting outside of the restricted area they just need to be relatively near the body.
Christians believe in power of prayer, they believe that god will watch over you and take care of you no matter what. They aren’t always opposed to medication for treatment, but believe that medications have no real power or value. Christians generally avoid alcohol and food products with caffeine, such as coffee and tea.Christian patients generally agree to child birthing in the hospital and the use of medications during childbirth when needed, but may prefer a midwife and a holistic approach.
Christians do allow for legally required infant and child vaccinations. Judaism, they believe that a person should not work from sundown friday night to sundown saturday night a person should not work. They think that all observant Jewish patients’ needs are met before leaving the room and the doctor needs to come back in frequently to see if the patient is ok. Avoid scheduling medical procedures and discharges on the Sabbath. Work closely with the patient, family, healthcare team, and discharge nurse to make discharge easy for the patient.
A major religious belief in healthcare would be modesty. Patients may express strong concerns about modesty, especially regarding treatment by someone of the opposite sex. Muslim women cover there body completely and should always be given time to do so before anyone enters the room. They also want family members present during exams and clothes need to be left on at all possible. There should be no physical contact by non-family members of the opposite sex such as shaking hands and in some cases eye contact.
Doctors need to pay attention to religion because they need to respect the patient and make sure your allowing enough time for patient to cover up and not to make direct eye-contact. In cases where the patient doesn’t want someone of the opposite sex helping them, the doctor must go and provide another doctor to treat them. Some cases this can be life threatening because there might not be another doctor available to help treat them, so you have to wait for someone to come take your place. Communication between doctors and patients and between the healthcare staff should always be based around the religion. Doctors should respect personal religious and cultural beliefs.
Some religions also don’t believe in medicines, they don’t believe that you should have to take a medicine to heal, to cure a disease, or simple things like birth control. They believe that god can heal all your problems and relieve your pain so you don’t need to take medications. This can be a struggle for times like after surgery, if they don’t allow the patient to take an medication then the patient is going to be in a lot of pain and is gonna be very miserable. Another example would be childbirth because they don’t allow medication and if a woman is in pain they would make her push through the pain.
The doctors have to go by their religion and follow their rules no matter what the patient may need. The basic concepts of treating patients with respect compassion and honesty are still respect, compassion, and honesty are still what are most important to patients, regardless of cultural/ethnic background. It is not our place to judge, but understanding a person’s cultural beliefs will help to improve patient compliance and well being.
